Appearing at a business lunch last December that was honoring the best in sports industry executives, Stern was asked about those empty seats at NBA games and about the weak cable television ratings for games.

“It’s all you guys in the media who keep repeating the story and it’s not true,” Stern said, putting an emphasis on the “not true” to hammer home the point.

OK, Stern said, attendance was not up in the early going of the 1999-2000 season, but it was not down. By Stern’s estimates, attendance was even with the previous season.

“But the NBA always gets out of the gate slowly,” he said.

It’ll get better, Stern promised.

Well, here we are. The NFL season is over and the footballers have cleared out of the weekend sports television market. The stage is clear and ready for Stern’s NBA.

But is the NBA ready for its prime-time look?

Well, yes and no.

True, new stars such as the Raptors’ Vince Carter have blossomed and are growing into true drawing cards around the league, and the revitalized Lakers, under Phil Jackson, are once again a force to be reckoned with out West.

Plus, there has also been very little off-the-court nonsense so far, which has kept fans’ attention on the game.

But there is still the nagging problem of attendance and ratings.

Attendance, which was actually off about 5 percent early in the season, regardless of Stern’s claim that it was flat, has come back to where it is now just about even with last year. However, if you exclude the attendance numbers of the six teams — Pacers, Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, Hawks and Raptors — that have played their home games in new arenas, which typically draw higher crowds, total attendance through Feb. 1 is off about 4 percent from last season.

There are three possible reasons for the decline, two of which should cause Stern some worry.

First is ticket prices. The NBA has the highest average ticket price of any of the four major sport leagues, at $48.37, according to Team Marketing Report. That’s up nearly 14 percent from last season. The NBA could be pricing its core fans out of the market.

Second, the marketing efforts of some NBA teams leave a lot to be desired. Stern said so much at the December lunch and promised to talk to those offending teams about becoming “hungrier.” This week, an NBA spokesman said Stern had talked to some teams about pumping up their marketing efforts, but the teams opted for a comprehensive approach.

“The NBA and its teams plan on addressing marketing issues at the March meetings and at the Board of Governors meeting in April,” the spokesman said.

The third reason for the decline, and this could even bring a smile to Stern’s face, is that the attendance numbers through the first 20-something home games this season are being compared, thanks to last season’s lockout, to 20-something late season games last year.

The late-season schedule always draws higher ratings and attendance numbers. That put this season’s total behind the eight ball before the first game ever tipped off.

T HE phones at the Wizards’ ticket window were said to be ringing off the hook after Michael Jordan signed on as part-owner and head of basketball operations. Fueled perhaps by visions of an imminent turnaround and a winning team, fans were practically knocking down the door for tickets, team marketing execs were quoted as saying.

Well, maybe.

With two post-MJ games now in the books, it appears fans may have been calling the ticket office hoping that Jordan was going to answer the phone. That’s because after averaging 13,874 fans in the 20,000-seat MCI Center prior to Jordan, attendance has jumped — OK, hopped, all of 2,091 fans — during Jordan’s reign.

While some would say the 15 percent increase means fans are actually singing “We’re off to see the Wizards,” it appears most fans are taking a wait-and-see approach.

That doesn’t mean bringing Jordan aboard hasn’t been a good thing. If total attendance increases by just 3,000 fans a game, the team will see revenues increase almost $4 million the rest of the season.